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    • lol, slow news day in niles, ohio.

      wkbn.com/news/local-news/grass…ontent=link&ICID=ref_fark

      NILES, Ohio (WKBN) - We've reported on Youngstown's battle with high grass, but it's also growing out of control in other communities, including Niles.
      The grass at Hetz Park is overgrown and the land is really wet.
      Parks Director Robert Burke said the park is in a flood zone and heavy mowing equipment would get stuck there if they tried to mow now.
      He said the grass will be cut as soon as the ground dries.

      link has video of the tall grass!

      another example of how useless our local tv news is.
      2,000 miler
    • max.patch wrote:

      lol, slow news day in niles, ohio.

      wkbn.com/news/local-news/grass…ontent=link&ICID=ref_fark

      NILES, Ohio (WKBN) - We've reported on Youngstown's battle with high grass, but it's also growing out of control in other communities, including Niles.
      The grass at Hetz Park is overgrown and the land is really wet.
      Parks Director Robert Burke said the park is in a flood zone and heavy mowing equipment would get stuck there if they tried to mow now.
      He said the grass will be cut as soon as the ground dries.

      link has video of the tall grass!

      another example of how useless our local tv news is.
      One of the reasons I always liked newspapers over TV news is that the newspaper could adjust its length based on the amount of news worth printing. On a slow news days the paper would simply be shorter.

      On the other hand TV news had a fixed amount of time to either cram in all the days eventful happenings, or to drone on while padding the time.
      Whatever it takes them to fill the slot, no more, no less.
      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
    • max.patch wrote:

      lol, slow news day in niles, ohio.

      wkbn.com/news/local-news/grass…ontent=link&ICID=ref_fark

      NILES, Ohio (WKBN) - We've reported on Youngstown's battle with high grass, but it's also growing out of control in other communities, including Niles.
      The grass at Hetz Park is overgrown and the land is really wet.
      Parks Director Robert Burke said the park is in a flood zone and heavy mowing equipment would get stuck there if they tried to mow now.
      He said the grass will be cut as soon as the ground dries.

      link has video of the tall grass!

      another example of how useless our local tv news is.
      A slow news day is way better than a bad news day.

      An ancient Chinese curse was to tell someone "May you live in interesting times."
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”


      John Greenleaf Whittier
    • high school in north carolina stops naming a valedictorian as "it's not fair to the students that came close but didn't win" so valedictorians father says "that's a load of crap" and rents a digital billboard.

      [IMG:http://a57.foxnews.com/images.foxnews.com/content/fox-news/lifestyle/2018/06/14/dad-buys-billboard-for-son-after-school-doesnt-recognize-him-as-valedictorian/_jcr_content/par/featured_image/media-0.img.jpg/931/524/1529001995093.jpg?ve=1&tl=1]
      2,000 miler

      The post was edited 1 time, last by max.patch ().

    • max.patch wrote:

      high school in north carolina stops naming a valedictorian as "it's not fair to the students that came close but didn't win" so valedictorians father says "that's a load of crap" and rents a digital billboard.
      To some degree, I agree. Grade inflation is such that GPA is not precise enough to distinguish among top academic performers. Also a GPA-based determination rewards students who take easy courses to pad their GPA. One solution would be to have an assessment system where the median grade is ~50%. Thus you are using half the grading scale to assess the top half of the class and the grades will better distinguish the valedictorian from those who "came close". The reason so many come close is that when the median grade is 90%, you are only using 10% of your grading scale to distinguish the top half of the class, and you are probably only using less than 1% of the grading scale to distinguish the top 10%. Also, a 4 point grading scale (A-F) is not precise enough to distinguish the to 10% from each other. It would be like trying to decide who has the FKT for hiking the AT if everyone measured their hike in whole number of weeks. We would have a 10 way tie for first among those who hiked the trail in 6 weeks. Should we teach our students that it is irresponsible journalism to report that "congressman blowhard has a 1% lead in the polls leading up to this week's election" when the poll has a margin of error of +/- 5%, but then say it's legit to pronounce Josh to be Valedictorian because his 3.998 GPA is better than someone else's 3.997? Another solution is to select Valedictorians by teacher vote. Teachers know which student gets a "high A" vs a "regular A" or which ones have a sincere thirst for knowledge and a deeper intellectual grasp of the course material vs one who is just going through the motions to get his A. Some people might complain that a teacher vote would be too subjective. But these people have been fooled into thinking that grades are not subjective because you can calculate a GPA to 3 decimal places. In science we use significant figures to reflect the precision of a measurement. Reporting too many decimal places in a measured number, or one calculated from a measured number is a lie. Given the uncertainty in the way grades are determined, I would say that GPAs should not have very many significant figures. The problem is that the quote explaining the policy (if that is indeed an accurate quote from the school) did a bad job of explaining the reality of the situation. Instead of saying "it's not fair to the students that came close but didn't win", they should have said "given the uncertainty in GPA calculations there were 37 students who were tied for having the highest GPA when rounded off to accurately reflect the precision of the measurement." If Josh doesn't understand this, Josh doesn't deserve to be valedictorian. If he does, maybe he can explain it to his father.
    • odd man out wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      high school in north carolina stops naming a valedictorian as "it's not fair to the students that came close but didn't win" so valedictorians father says "that's a load of crap" and rents a digital billboard.
      To some degree, I agree. Grade inflation is such that GPA is not precise enough to distinguish among top academic performers. Also a GPA-based determination rewards students who take easy courses to pad their GPA.
      i understand your argument but have one important disagreement.

      many high schools -- not all -- use a weighted GPA. and while they use the traditional 4 point scale for normal high school classes, AP (advanced placement or college level courses) are given 5 points for an A, 4 points for a B, etc. these students can end up with an GPA that exceeds 4.0 on a 4 point scale. the average valedictorian in cobb county has a GPA of at least 4.3 on a 4 point scale.

      taking only easy courses will not work in a school system that gives extra value for AP courses.

      i took only easy courses in high school and barely graduated. :)
      2,000 miler
    • speaking of valedictorians...

      the valedictorian of petaluma high school in california was the alleged victim of sexual assault on campus. she reported this to the school and alleges that they took no action when it was reported.

      she was warned by the school to not mention this during her speech.

      a few minutes into her speech she brought up the incident -- and the school cut off her microphone. the crowd chanted "let her speak" -- but the microphone was not turned back on.

      i don't know how many people were at her graduation -- but her speech is on youtube up to the point where the microphone was turned off and she returned to her seat -- only now in the video she has recorded her entire speech. as i write this over 400,000 people have viewed the video.

      had the school let her continue probably a few hundred people would have heard the speech and it would have been forgotten by now. hard to censor the news in the internet era.
      2,000 miler

      The post was edited 2 times, last by max.patch ().

    • max.patch wrote:

      odd man out wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      high school in north carolina stops naming a valedictorian as "it's not fair to the students that came close but didn't win" so valedictorians father says "that's a load of crap" and rents a digital billboard.
      To some degree, I agree. Grade inflation is such that GPA is not precise enough to distinguish among top academic performers. Also a GPA-based determination rewards students who take easy courses to pad their GPA.
      i understand your argument but have one important disagreement.
      many high schools -- not all -- use a weighted GPA. and while they use the traditional 4 point scale for normal high school classes, AP (advanced placement or college level courses) are given 5 points for an A, 4 points for a B, etc. these students can end up with an GPA that exceeds 4.0 on a 4 point scale. the average valedictorian in cobb county has a GPA of at least 4.3 on a 4 point scale.

      taking only easy courses will not work in a school system that gives extra value for AP courses.

      i took only easy courses in high school and barely graduated. :)
      My daughter has a 4.33 GPA out of 4.0. She is just barely in the top 10percent of her class. The co-valedictorians will likely have 4.88 next May...a 4.0/4.0 from her school puts you below the top 25 percent...
    • Grade inflation is a problem and agree sometimes determining who the top student is academically is a matter of splitting hairs. Maybe the commencement speakers should be chosen based on some other criteria. I know that I would like to hear what the kid who has enlisted to serve his country after graduation has to say.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”


      John Greenleaf Whittier
    • Today we'll be going to my nephew's high school graduation.
      While I don't know what his GPA is ,I'm sure he's near the top of his class even though he's taken all Advanced Placement and honors classes.
      In September he'll be leaving for the Navy, he's already slated to go to nuclear power plant school based on his school grades and his ASVAB test results. He could have gone to most any college but chose to serve our country instead. :)
    • Dan76 wrote:

      In my book, those choosing to serve the country right after HS are the valedictorians of their class.
      It turns out my nephew's graduating class of 483 students has 8 who have chosen military service over college or other choices.
      They were commended by the president of our board of education, boy times sure have changed since I graduated high school in 1970.
      Then, school officials tried talking people out of military service.
    • LIhikers wrote:

      Dan76 wrote:

      In my book, those choosing to serve the country right after HS are the valedictorians of their class.
      It turns out my nephew's graduating class of 483 students has 8 who have chosen military service over college or other choices.They were commended by the president of our board of education, boy times sure have changed since I graduated high school in 1970.
      Then, school officials tried talking people out of military service.
      I believe 9/11 woke a lot of people up to the reality of the world we live in now.
      The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
      Richard Ewell, CSA General
    • The problem in my HS was that there was one section for each of the AP courses which had capacities of 30 students. The same 30 students were allowed in all the AP classes because they were the only ones with the prerequisites which were the previous AP courses. Many of these students got their 4.0 GPAs by doing little work to get getting straight B's.

      In my case, my chemistry teacher also taught the AP class. He made it known that our class and the AP class were identical (same assignments, tests, etc). The AP students "earned" their status because he used a stricter grading scale in the AP class (95% for an A instead of 90%). As it turned out, I had the highest grade in both sections, but my 98% score earned me an A worth 4 points but had I been enrolled in the AP section I would have gotten an A worth 5 points.

      Meanwhile since I couldn't get into the AP Pre Calc class with the school's best math teacher (it filled with the standard 30 students), I was in analytical geometry with the school's worst teacher, an alcoholic who, if he came to class, would just say "Read Chapter 10 and do the problems at the end of the Chapter", and then go to sleep. So I would figure out how to do the problems and teach everyone else in my corner of the class.

      After two years with this math teacher, i was not deemed qualified to get in AP calc as a senior. Upon hearing this, my parents were able pusuade the administration to let me take Calc.

      Forgive me if I feel the naming of valedictorian to be a pointless tradition.
    • I was one of those students who carried baggage of the expectations of others. I never had to study or crack a book to get my standard B+ grades. My parents expected a lot from me, but they could never stay sober long enough to get it. My teachers knew what I was doing and hated it. I on the other hand got exactly what I wanted, a career that interested me, paid top of the line wages, gave me plenty of time off and allowed me to retire really early.

      "Hey teacher, leave us kids alone"
    • You never know how kids will turn out. Our youngest son made mediocre grades in high school, got into trouble at age 17, graduated HS and worked for a machine shop 18 months, got married, had a baby...decided to go to college majoring in mechanical engineering, graduated first in class with all A's, MBA...although very smart his greatest asset is the ability to make friends and draw others to him.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.
    • woman pays matchmaking service 12,600 pounds (which alexa tells me is almost $17,000) to find her a man.

      unsuccessful; she sues to get her money back. company refuses.

      she writes online reviews calling the company "fraudulent" and "a scam".

      company counter-sues for defamation.

      here's the punch line...

      judge quotes the beatles hit "can't buy me love during the trial".

      thescottishsun.co.uk/news/2834…ontent=link&ICID=ref_fark

      edit to add obvious observation: if a man pays $17,00 to a matchmaking site -- he's probably not looking for an overweight 47 year old with a couple kids.
      2,000 miler

      The post was edited 1 time, last by max.patch ().

    • Drybones wrote:

      You never know how kids will turn out. Our youngest son made mediocre grades in high school, got into trouble at age 17, graduated HS and worked for a machine shop 18 months, got married, had a baby...decided to go to college majoring in mechanical engineering, graduated first in class with all A's, MBA...although very smart his greatest asset is the ability to make friends and draw others to him.
      It is those Social Skills he honed while being 'well rounded' in High School that served him well :)
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”


      John Greenleaf Whittier
    • Respecting the political POV on this forum, suggest folks check the video by MJ Hegar on YouTube . I think folks will appreciate the message in this video.

      MJ wrote ‘Shoot Like a Girl’, a book I read in one sitting it was so riveting.

      She’s my kind of American




      Lest we forget.....



      SSgt Ray Rangel - USAF
      SrA Elizabeth Loncki - USAF
      PFC Adam Harris - USA
      MSgt Eden Pearl - USMC
    • Drybones wrote:

      I found it interesting that those with the highest IQ in my graduating high school class didn't fair that well in college but those who had to work for good grades in HS did the best in college.
      College separates even more as the jocks tumble, the nerds excel, and those that get a Doctorate "sometimes" will fail. From personal experiences with people in my fraternity or college brothers, I have seen a few things. I have seen one member who was a walking encyclopedia who had a doctorate. He could not get a job as a professor, and ended up as a librarian. Some of my friends were better at people skills and started their own companies and were far more successful. I agree with you that college may be a growth experience.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup: